Green Ideas for Recycling Entrepreneurs

It all started with a friend.  My friend Tamiko Franklin came as a guest to one of my Entrepreneurship classes this semester.  She came in last week and the students had to project what kind of entrepreneur she was.  They thought of cliches like Fashion (not a bad association, just predictable as Tamiko is a well dressed professional) and the more against type like Construction company magnate.  In the end, they got a clue that she was considering entering into the recycling business from a career as a Copyright Attorney.  10 teams of 5 to 7 prepared short video presentations on the kind of Recycling Entrepreneur she could be....paper, plastics, tires, aluminum and many garbage to art themes emerged.  The creativity the students mustered was an impressive array but they failed to Google Tamiko and really learn about her and how she might shape her new business.  This was a valuable lesson about ideas versus opportunities.  Ideas can be fun and come easily but to really have the right fit the opportunity has to be right on many levels...a right fit to the entrepreneur, to the context or environment that the enterprise will operate and a right fit to the potential customer markets in a way that will be better than the existing competition.  Thus, the students exhibited much creativity but when they match it with research as they progress through the course learning modules they will discover the value creation elements of the enterprise and the different approaches which can maximize profits of all kinds: people, planet and profit in terms of money as well.

Here is a sampling of research that could be done along the various components to building a business plan for Tamiko Franklin
1. Background - http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/10/23/interview-tamiko-franklin/, http://www.intelektiv.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9&Itemid=20
2. Idea Generation - http://www.which.co.uk/money/bills-and-budgeting/guides/10-ways-to-make-money-by-going-green/green-money-making-ideas/, http://www.springwise.com/eco_sustainability/ourgreendistrict/, http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/businessideas/a/greenbizideas.htm
3. Marketing - http://www.nerc.org/,http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/post-consumer-recycled-goods-recycling-waste-into-stuff.html, http://www.recycleinme.com/
4. Operations - http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/recycle-one-thing1.htm, http://www.ehow.com/how_2019569_start-recycling-business.html
5 Finance - http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/4-ways-to-earn-cash-from-recycling.html, http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/rmd/finance.htm

What other resources could you investigate and where would you put them in her business plan?